Richard Taylor. Courtesy of the Louisiana State Library.
The forward units of the army reached Alexandria on March 24. Arriving as a tired yet conquering army, they had already traveled 165 muddy road miles. Still, “the colors were unfurled, the band struck up, and the men marched through the streets” with Banks watching the troops pass in review from a house veranda (Beecher 1866:298-299). Once assembled, the Federal forces numbered nearly 30,000 troops, 13 gunboats, and 60 assorted transport vessels.
Here Banks and Porter had their second warning that the Red River was not going to cooperate. It quickly became obvious that the expedition would be delayed by the low water at the rapids. Although eventually the water level rose, the expedition was forced to leave many vessels behind. North of Alexandria, Porter’s fleet consisted of only 12 gunboats and 30 transports. To carry all the supplies needed by the army, wagons had to be used to make up for the supply boats left in Alexandria. Banks was also forced to leave behind troops to protect the fleet and the town.
While they waited for the Red to rise, the soldiers and sailors had to use the water for washing and cooking. As one member of the 114th New York described it:
It is a dirty, sluggish stream, about the eighth of a mile wide, flowing in an extremely crooked channel. Its bends and curves are so exaggerated that they seem almost unnatural....
In all the water charged with mud which our men had been compelled to drink, they had never before seen anything that came so near being a compromise between earth and water as the Red River (Beecher 1866:299-300).
U.S. fleet in the Red River at Alexandria. Courtesy of the Louisiana State Library.
Naturally, the delays in Alexandria were a godsend to Confederate General Taylor. Some 5,000 cavalry reinforcements arrived from Texas to help block the Yankee advance from Alexandria. Now, despite still being outnumbered, Taylor boldly looked for an opportunity to engage Banks before they reached Shreveport. As Taylor later related in his memoirs, “My confidence of success in the impending engagement was inspired by accurate knowledge of the Federal movements, as well as the character of their commander, General Banks, whose measure had been taken in the Virginia campaigns of 1862 and since” (Taylor 1879:161).
Taylor’s opportunity came when Banks reached Grand Ecore, a landing north of Natchitoches. There, Banks decided that the bulk of his land forces would approach Shreveport along a narrow road, twisting away from the Red River and passing through the villages of Pleasant Hill and Mansfield. This decision prevented Banks’s army and Porter’s gunboats from mutually supporting each other during their advance. The army soon became strung out for some 20 miles along the slender road Banks chose. Awaiting him near Mansfield on April 8 were Taylor’s smaller but better concentrated forces. In the battle, the tired Federal troops panicked and were thrown back down the road.